Cisco Technology, Inc.

Mark Allen Freskos

Michelle Diane Hawke

David Delano Ward

Kapil Jain

Yassin Movassaghi

David Anthony Tanner

George Suwala

Christopher Norris

Satyanarayana Dv Raju

Neal McDonnell

Sukumar Puvvala

Xiaobing Xie

Charles M Letchworth

Patrick Joseph Smears

Jonathan Turnbull

Dhanendra Jain

Dilbag Singh

John Mark Cooper

A method and apparatus for modifying the configuration of a network device, such as a router, using a two-stage configuration model is provided. A first request for a change in configuration of a network device is received. Configuration data that describes the change in configuration of the network device is stored in a buffer. A second request to modify the current operational state of the network device to reflect the configuration data stored in the buffer is received. An exclusive lock on the network device is obtained. The current operational state of the network device is modified to reflect the configuration data stored in the buffer. Multiple users may modify the network device without interfering with one another because conflicts are avoided through use of an exclusive lock. Requests of different management operations may be contained within XML documents that are transmitted from the client to the network device.

Two-stage network device configuration process

A method and apparatus for the configuration of a network device through the exchange of XML documents is provided. A network device transmits multiple chunks of an XML document to a client in response to the size of the XML document being larger than a configurable size. The client does not receive any XML documents from network device that exceed the configurable size, and may abort receiving additional chunks of the XML document. The client and the network device may each discover which version of a data schema each other is using to reference components of the network device. The exchanged XML documents include version data that identifies a version for a plurality of data schemas that are each associated with a component of network device. The client and the network device may thus avoid exchanging ambiguous communications due to inconsistent versions of a data schema.

Protocol for efficient exchange of XML documents with a network device

An end-to-end approach is provided for developing and maintaining network device management applications. The approach includes an XML-based development environment for network device management applications that uses Management Data API (MDA) schemas that define a hierarchical data model for components supported by a network device. The XML-based development environment also uses XML schemas to define a common XML-based interface used by management applications to access management data maintained on the network device. The approach provides programmatic access to network device management data and management data schema with an XML-based data model and interface that is consistent across all network device components. The approach includes mechanisms for automatically generating XML requests that conform to a hierarchical data model from requests that conform to a table-based data model. The approach also includes mechanisms for automatically extracting data from XML replies and conforming to the table-based data model.

Server-side XML-based development environment for network device management applications

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Morrisville, NC, United States of America

Mark Allen Freskos